2 teens killed in separate Chicago shootings

Chicago
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Two teenagers were killed in separate shootings in Chicago on Friday, a day on which at least six teenagers were shot across the city.

Rey Dorantes, 14, was standing on the porch of his family home on the 2400 block of West Augusta Boulevard in Humboldt Park around 11:50 p.m. when two males approached and shot the boy several times.

JoAnn Tenev, Rey's stepmother, told DNAinfo.com that the boy's father told him to come inside just before he was shot. When paramedics arrived, they found Rey lying just inside his home bleeding from several gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at 2:55 a.m. at the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

Police suspect that the shooting may have been gang related, although friends and family said he was a good boy who was avoiding gangs and violence.

"He wasn't one of those to sit on the corner gang banging," Tenev told DNAinfo.com. Tenev described the high school freshman as "helpful and generous." He showed "good promise" at Roberto Clemente High School, according to the Chicago Tribune. Rey wanted to join the Army after graduating and had joined his school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC).

"He was a really great kid," Roberto Clemente Principal Marcey Sorensen told the Tribune. "Our school community is deeply saddened by his death."

"Anytime you needed him to help you, he'd be right there," Tenev added.

Rey would have turned 15 on Tuesday.

"Now he's not even going to see his 15th birthday," lamented Tenev.

A few hours earlier, Victor Vega, 15, was walking with another male in the 2600 block of South Ridgeway Avenue in Little Village when an unknown man approached the pair and opened fire at 6:40 p.m.

According to the Tribune, the gunman shouted a gang slogan before shooting. The boy was pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital. No suspect has been apprehended.

The boys' deaths bring Chicago's homicide total to 22 for the year. Four other teens were also reportedly shot in the Windy City on Friday.

More than a dozen children have now been shot to death in the United States in 2013.